Peace Never Lasts
by Loo Dig-E
Summary: The Reapers are defeated. Now, onto the next war.
1. Escalation

A/N: Just a little one-shot about what I hope will happen next. In this continuity, BioWare didn't drop the ball. The Crucible did exactly what it should have done: kill the Reapers, period. I'll be really mad if the next Mass Effect game isn't about something like this.

Escalation

_Massive celebrations are underway on almost every world as the galaxy rejoices after the defeat of the Reapers..._

_Both the Rachni and Collectors have come forward to formally apologize to the public for their actions taken while under the influence of the Reapers..._

_With the destruction of the Alliance Parliament, a new human government is being formed under the authority of the Systems Alliance..._

"The Reapers showed us just how weak we were when they took our homeworld from us in a matter of hours. We must ensure such a devastating defeat NEVER happens again..."

_The Systems Alliance and Geth Collective, who have been close allies since the Reaper War, signed the Treaty of Mutual Defense, officially forming a new military alliance between Humanity and the Geth; simply calling themselves, the Allies..._

_The Citadel was moved back to the Widow System in a joint effort by the Collectors, Geth, and Humans after its existence in the Sol System was deemed too high of a security risk._

_The Batarian Hegemony, which was devastated during the Reaper War, has been officially dismantled, and a new civilized government known as the Batarian State is being formed under the supervision of the Allies..._

_The Rachni People's petition to join the Allies was accepted yesterday, shortly following the Batarian State's._

_The Collectors declined their invitation to join the Allies, but have stated they will still maintain constant communication with the Geth..._

_The Allies have begun construction of a new Arcturus Station. No information has been released on the specifications of this new battle station, but it's safe to assume it will be considerably more powerful than the old station destroyed by the Reapers in the Battle of Arcturus..._

_The Quarian's recently submitted a petition to join the Allies..._

"The Quarians will not be accepted into the Allies for failing to meet the following nonnegotiable terms:

All member species of the Allies must maintain a modern military.

All member species of the Allies must be able to defend themselves against attack by a modern military.

All member species of the Allies must be able to defend another species against attack by a modern military.

All member species of the Allies must possess the biological characteristics of a warrior-race, as defined in the Treaty of Mutual Defense."

_A Batarian insurrectionist faction has risen up against the Allies, drawing considerable support from both remnants of the old Hegemony and various Terminus factions..._

_In response to the growing strength of the Insurrectionists, the Systems Alliance has officially denounced the Treaty of Farixen, forfeiting Humanity's seat on the Council and increasing naval production to their fullest potential..._

_The newly formed Krogan Empire was granted full membership into the Citadel Council..._

_With the advent of the biotic induction process, biotics have become a mandatory part of basic training in the Alliance..._

_Geth-quarian skirmishes continue to heat up and many fear it may escalate into war..._

_The Turian Hierarchy recently denounced the Treaty of Farixen, and began increasing its naval production. The Turian Councilor condoned the Hierarchy's actions, blaming much of the devastation caused by the Reapers on the Hierarchy's decision to limit themselves in order to appease the Asari..._

_The Geth have imposed martial law on all quarian worlds..._

_Tensions between the Alliance and Hierarchy continue to rise due to the Alliance's growing power..._

_The Quarians have demanded the Geth vacate Geth-Quarian Space, a demand which the Geth strongly refused..._

_The Quarian Navy's attempt to break the blockade over Rannoch ended in disaster with the entire quarian fleet destroyed..._

_Riots on Rannoch erupted into shootouts, resulting in thousands of quarians dead..._

"The Quarians have attempted to exterminate our people not once, but twice. Twice! Both times we allowed them to keep the very freedom which they pathetically tried to take away from us! They deserve nothing less than sheer and utter ANNIHILATION! But we will not stoop to their level. We are above them. We always have been, and we always will be! We will allow them to live once more. However, it has become clear that coexistence between us is impossible. The Quarians are far too treacherous. They can never be trusted. We will not destroy them, but we will no longer tolerate them either..."

_The Collective extended an ultimatum to the Conclave in a hearing today. Leave, or die..._

_The Quarians departed Rannoch in a new fleet the Geth pieced back together from the destroyed Migrant Fleet..._

_A new era of technological advancement has been ushered in as militaries across the galaxy begin massive buildups..._

_Tensions between the Hierarchy and Alliance have sparked an arms race as the Alliance attempts to subdue the Insurrection, and the Hierarchy attempts to keep up with the Alliance in terms of weapons technology..._

_This just in, the Hierarchy severed its long and prosperous trading partnership with the Alliance, and imposed a trade embargo on Earth Systems Alliance Space..._

_Recent intelligence revealed a turian terrorist cell supporting the Insurrection. The Hierarchy has strongly denied involvement..._

_An Alliance raid on the turian terrorists took a disastrous turn when local Hierarchy forces arrived on the scene and decimated the Alliance team, taking at least a dozen prisoners. When Alliance officials demanded their return, the Hierarchy responded by claiming they were conducting an illegal operation on turian soil..._

_Tensions between the Alliance and Hierarchy threatened to erupt into war after a rescue mission turned into a slaughter when an N7 team infiltrated the Hierarchy facility where the captured Alliance team was being held and killed over 400 turians..._

_An uneasy peace was mediated between the Alliance and Hierarchy in the Council Chambers today, seemingly averting war..._

"With the Insurrection defeated, our people can finally stand strong together with our allies, rather than divided against them..."

_Even after the defeat of the Batarian Insurrection, the Alliance refuses to reacknowledge the Citadel Conventions, forever abandoning any hope of rejoining the Citadel Council..._

"The Citadel Conventions were written for a different time, and that time has passed..."

_Countless families lost their homes when the Alliance evicted all turian citizens from human space and terminated all joint human-turian military operations..._

_The Hierarchy has demanded Allied disarmament, threatening military action if the Allies do not comply..._

"Under absolutely NO circumstances will the Allies be conducting ANY disarmament. Not now. Not ever..."

_**BREAKING NEWS: TURIANS INVADE...**_

_**SECOND HUMAN-TURIAN WAR...**_

"By the Treaty of Mutual Defense, the Geth Collective officially declares war on the Turian Hierarchy..."

"By the Treaty of Mutual Defense, the Batarian State officially declares war on the Turian Hierarchy..."

"By the Treaty of Mutual Defense, the Rachni People officially declare war on the Turian Hierarchy..."

_The Hierarchy suffered several devastating defeats when the full force of the Allies counter-attacked..._

"The Krogan Empire will stand by the Turian Hierarchy in their fight. Together, WE WILL CRUSH OUR ENEMIES, AND BRING THE ALLIES TO THEIR KNEES..!"

_**KROGAN EMPIRE ENTERS THE WAR...**_

"Any and all of those discovered to be aiding the Turian Hierarchy or Krogan Empire, shall be considered enemies of the Allies, and will be treated as such..."

_Krogan forces struggle to gain the upper hand over the Geth..._

_The Krogan-Turian Alliance has requested military support from the other council races..._

_All of the Asari Republics have declared a state of neutrality in the ongoing conflict..._

_The STG was discovered to be feeding intelligence to the Hierarchy, and the Salarian Union has now been declared an enemy of the Allies..._

_The Yahg, who recently achieved space-faring status, denied their invitation to join the Council, and condemned the organization as weak and hypocritical..._

"The Council disgraced us. Spat in our faces, and then closed us off from their presence. Now, because they face an enemy that's more than they can handle, they have the nerve to ask for our help NEVER..!"

_The Asari Republics have ceased all humanitarian aid after threats from the Allies..._

_Matriarch Lidanya, the commanding officer of the Destiny Ascension, as well as several other high-ranking asari, have been especially critical of asari inaction during the war..._

"The time for peaceful negotiation has passed! We can no longer sit idly by as war rages around us! We must act! We must fight alongside those we have called friends and allies for thousands of years! Do you think the Allies will stop at Palaven, Tuchanka, and Sur'Kesh!? They will storm our shores and burn Thessia to the ground if we do not stop them now, before it's too late..!"

_The warring faction of asari continues to gain support..._

_The Quarian Conclave was granted full membership into the Citadel Council in return for their support against the Allies..._

_After a failed assassination attempt on Matriarch Lidanya, the warring faction has overthrown the Asari Republics, and officially declared war on the Allies..._

_The Allied-Council War has engulfed all of the galaxy's major races..._

"I remember how it all began. At first it was great. New alliances that I never though possible were forged from the fires of the Reaper War. Humans and Batarians, living together in peace, without the constant hatred, violence, and terrorism. Humans and Geth, working together to build better worlds rather than destroy each other. But with new allies come new enemies, or old enemies in this case. Peace never lasts, and it wasn't long before the galaxy burned once more..."


	2. The Fate of Adrien Victus

A/N: I have decided to change this story from just a simple one-shot about how the Allied-Council Wars got started, into a compilation of snap-shots from the course of the first and second wars. It will be from the point of view of the trooper from the story _Coming Together_. You'll see what I mean. It takes place in a room that's like the pod Shepard went into in order to disable the geth fighter squadrons in _Mass Effect 3_. The third war will be explored in the story _Coming Together_. You may also notice some small elements from the Halo Universe slipping in. This is one of my stories after all, and they're all connected (all part of a crossed universe). However, this story is like 99.99% Mass Effect, so I don't think it really qualifies as a cross-over.

In this chapter, there is a lot of background information about conventional geth, and some of the information may be seen again in another story of mine (as I said, I don't intend on ever writing two stories that aren't connected at this time). The Geth are the fastest growing species in the entire universe, and by the time stated in this chapter, they are a Tier 1 civilization, the fifth civilization to reach such a level of advancement in the Milky Way. The other four are the Forerunners (who left the galaxy after they defeated the Flood), the Prehistoric Humans (who are still around in my stories), the Prehistoric San 'Shyuum (they're gone), and the Collectors (they recently achieved Tier 1 status as well, but it took them eons longer than the Geth). I don't know if I would consider the Reapers to be a Tier 1 civilization before their downfall. There is not enough information on them for me to comfortably make such an assumption, but if they weren't, then they were definitely close, or could have been, but chose not to be.

Candela and decibels are units of measurement for light and sound, respectively. A real-world M84 stun grenade emits 170-180 decibels and more than one million candela.

The marine and the trooper stepped into a blank, metallic-gray, poorly lit room.

"Stand still," the marine told the trooper.

As soon as they both stopped moving, they were lifted a few inches off the ground. It seemed like they were being scanned. The trooper started to squirm a round a little, to get a look at what was going on around him.

"Excess movement is discouraged during an upload."

"Oh. Right."

After a few moments, a brief flash of light and sound permeated the room, and both the marine and trooper were gently placed back on the floor. They were no longer in the small gray room, or so the trooper thought. Their physical bodies were still floating in the blank room, but their consciousnesses were not. They were now surrounded by endless space, with tiny white orbs floating around as far as the trooper could see. The trooper had never been to space before, and he imagined this must have been what it was like, minus the gravity.

"Where are we? What is this?"

"Our consciousnesses are in a database, a database containing the Allied-Council Wars Archives. It's an encyclopedia. Every one of these orbs is a piece of unclassified information about the wars. Statistics, reports, even memories."

"Memories?"

"Yes. Memories of those who experienced the wars. Now, grab one..."

The trooper grabbed the nearest orb.

"...All right, now squeeze it."

The trooper squeezed the orb in his hand, and was immediately submersed into an incredibly vivid dream.

The Fate of Adrien Victus

**LOCATION: MILKY WAY / APIEN CREST / CASTELLUS SYSTEM / DIGERIS**

**DATE: circa 2545 CE**

**650 AS**

**EVENT: SIEGE OF CASTELLUS, SECOND ALLIED-COUNCIL WAR**

Hundreds of thousands of geth ships orbited the burning world, sifting through the debris filed of wrecked turian warships and battle stations, stripping them down for anything useful. The battle was over; over before it even began. No organics had ever defeated the Geth in a major engagement, and the Siege of Castellus was no exception. Down on the surface of Digeris, there was no more turian resistance left than there was anywhere else in the system. Only the Citadel of Digeris in the planet's capital of Apparitus remained, albeit not all of it. Much of it had been destroyed, and what remained was set aflame, but it still stood. The only reason the geth in orbit had not simply bombarded the citadel into oblivion was because Primarch Victus was inside, and they were determined to take him alive.

In the massive great hall of the Citadel of Digeris, over 800 turians stood ready to fight to the last breath, and they soon would. They were as prepared to make their last stand as anyone could be. Auto-turrents, mounted guns, combat drones, and lines and lines of soldiers all took aim at the main gate with their eyes fixed, and their hearts pounding. The Geth were right outside, and would be pouring through any second. The hall was dead silent, and if someone were to drop a pin, the sound of it hitting the ground would have been deafening.

Before entering a battle, the Geth determined who their enemy was going to be, and then modified their ammunition to combat that specific enemy's biology. In the past, the modifications were drastic, with completely different ammunition being used for different enemies. Now, the Geth were able to simply modify the mysterious energy discharged from their weapons, rather than constantly switching from directed-energy to projectile weapons when switching from organic to synthetic enemies, and designing various different types of directed-energies and projectiles according to the nature of the enemy they were killing.

In this battle, the Geth were fighting the Turians, and they modified their ammunition accordingly. The Geth were the currently the third most advanced known species in the galaxy, and could design the mysterious energy in their weapons to elicit an endless variety of effects, limited only by imagination. The energy was currently designed to react to turian bodies by causing the immediately affected area of the body to explode. The force of the explosion was enough to knock the turians off their feet, but not enough to send them flying (the ammunition could of course be modified to send the turians flying). Bodily fluids were drawn to the affected area, giving true meaning to the term 'blood-bath' when the affected area exploded. Lastly, the energy caused near total paralysis and bodily shutdown, with the exception of sound production, and pain reception. The energy caused turian bodies to scream uncontrollably, and suffer unbearable pain for a few seconds before falling silent.

There were no wounded when fighting geth. Their weapons either killed you instantly, regardless of where they made contact with your body, or they subdued you instantly, regardless of where they made contact with your body. Shooting someone in the foot with a geth weapon worked just as well as shooting them in the head, provided the shooter was a geth. Conventional geth weaponry only operated in conventional geth hands, not in the hands of another species, or an outdated form of geth.

For three centuries, the Geth had not changed their bodies far from their original quarian designs. They made new bodies for new purposes, but they stayed largely the same. The weapons and ships they designed for themselves after they discarded all the quarian equipment they commandeered for the Morning War were new, but individual geth bodies – the ones with hands and feet – stayed entirely the same, right down to the materials the Quarians used to build them. Now, in terms of appearance, geth bodies and vehicles bared resemblance to the new handheld weapons they designed for themselves after the Morning War. They were smooth, sleek, shiny, and most importantly, enclosed. There were no more exposed tubes or wires which the Quarians didn't care to cover up. The Geth could also change the color of their skins and lights at will. The skin of their bodies, weapons, vehicles, everything would darken and discharge red light for a more terrifying effect, and lighten and discharge blue light for a more calming effect, and they were not trying to calm anyone right now. The materials used to create all things geth had also changed. Modern turian infantry weapons were not powerful enough to damage the super-dense materials the Geth now used to create things. Only turian heavy weapons could do any damage to a simple geth drone now, and all the turians in the hall knew it, but they would not lay down and die just because they had no chance of survival.

The Geth were the fastest growing species in the galaxy, and maybe even the entire universe. In their only six-and-a-half centuries of existence, they had already become a Tier 1 civilization, incomprehensibly faster than the other four Tier 1 civilizations of the Milky Way combined, and they had done so without reverse-engineering any alien technology, something else none of the other Tier 1 civilizations could say. The Geth were actually strongly opposed to reverse-engineering the technology of another species, preferring to 'build their own future,' something they were very proud to say they had done.

The gate to the hall burst open. A blinding red light covered the room, robbing the turian defenders of their vision, and the horn used by the Reapers blared so loud it shook the room, robbing the turians of their hearing in addition to their sight. Many of the organics simply fell from the intense light and sound alone, which remained constant until the battle was over, never ceasing. The turians' battlesuits struggled to compensate for massive emission of decibels and candela, but there was not much that could be done, as the geth were attacking the turians in the digital world as much as the physical world, disrupting their electronics. The over 800 turian defenders were completely wiped out in less than minute when the geth entered the hall, and came down on them with more force than the combined might of every organic race in the galaxy.

When all of the defenders were dead, the geth walked over their corpses to the next gate at the end of the hall, leading them to an atrium where the last 30 turians in the Apien Crest were set up to defend Primarch Victus. No one fired. The geth walked into the atrium with the weapons lowered, despite the turians taking aim. All of the geth spoke as one.

"Primarch Victus, you're coming with us. You can come peacefully..."

The geth raised their weapons.

"...or we can kill you and all your men, take your body, and reanimate you later. No more turians have to die. You can put an end to this war, and save your species. The choice is yours."

Victus put his hand on the barrel of his nearest soldier's weapon, gently pushing it down.

"Everyone, stand down..."

When the turians lowered their weapons, the geth did so as well.

"...All right. So where are we going?"

A portal opened up over the doorway to the atrium.

"Step through the portal, all of you..."

The turians hesitated.

"...You all have ten seconds to make it through the portal."

"Move. Move. Through the portal," Victus barked at his men. He had no doubt in his mind the portal would close after ten seconds, and those left behind would do worse than die. The geth did not tell them to drop their weapons, and so none of them did. When Victus stepped through the portal, he found himself alone, in a dark, blank area, with only a small light shining down on him, seemingly without a source. His handheld weapons had not gone with him through the portal, and his omni-tool had been disabled. His cybernetics were also suppressed, leaving him with nothing but his talons, which were just as useless as his weapons against geth. All Victus could do now was wait, and wait he did.

Nothing happened. No one came, and Victus spent the rest of eternity plunging into madness; thus was his sentence for leading the Council in war against the Allies... and losing.


	3. The Overview

A/N: Schells, the name I used as a first name for Dalatrass Linron, is the name of a miniscule salarian character without a given last name. Treeya, the name I used as a first name for Matriarch Lidanya, is the name of a miniscule asari character without a given last name.

In this chapter, I reveal the basic information on the Allied-Council Wars so far. I have the original document presented in Wikipedia style, but FanFiction doesn't support that kind of format. With that being said, and everything being dropped straight down, I hope it's still easy to read. I switched the text around tons of times to try and simulate the original document, but I couldn't, and this was the best final result.

The Vit'Alé are called the Virtual Aliens in canon. That's obviously not a good name, so I improvised.

The Council has a much higher "killable" population, and thus, their casualties are much higher.

The Second Allied-Council War was absolutely devastating, and not just to the civilizations involved, but also to the very fabric of spacetime.

* * *

The Overview

After waking up from the first transfer of information, two more orbs floated by the trooper. He did not grab and squeeze them like he did the first. He just glanced at them for a second as they passed by, skimming their overviews. They were the main articles on the First and Second Allied-Council Wars.

**First Allied-Council War**

**Date** 2219 – 2281

**Location** Milky Way

**Outcome** Allied victory

** Belligerents**

Allies:  


Batarians

Geth

Humans

Rachni

Vorcha (primitive cannon fodder)

Council:

Asari

Krogan

Quarians

Salarians

Turians

Volus

Vorcha (primitive cannon fodder)

** Commanders**

Allies:

Ka'hairal Balak

Steven Hackett

Council:

Treeya Lidanya

Urdnot Wrex

Han'Gerrel vas Neema

Schells Linron

Adrien Victus

Din Korlack

** Casualties**

Allied dead:**  
**

16,403,000,000

Council dead:

22,477,500,000

Total dead:

38,880,500,000

* * *

**Second Allied-Council War**

**Date **2302 – 2545

**Location **Milky Way Subgroup

**Outcome **Allied victory

Milky Way Subgroup severely damaged

- Approximately 1% of Milky Way destroyed

- All of Milky Way's sattelite galaxies destroyed

- Milky Way temporarily destabalized

Galactic community severely depopulated

- Near-extinction of Batarians

- Near-extinction of Humans

- Near-extinction of Rachni

- Near-extinction of Asari

- Near-extinction of Krogan

- Near-extinction of Salarians

- Near-extinction of Turians

- Extinction of Drell

- Extinction of Elcor

- Extinction of Hanar

- Extinction of Quarians

- Extinction of Raloi

- Extinction of Vit'Alé

- Extinction of Volus

** Belligerents**

Allies:  


Batarian

Collectors

Geth

Human

Rachni

Raloi

Vit'Alé

Council:

Asari

Drell

Elcor

Hanar

Krogan

Quarians

Salarians

Turians

Volus

Vorcha (primitive cannon fodder)

Yahg (loyalist faction)

** Commanders**

Allies:

Ka'hairal Balak†

Steven Hackett †

Council:

Treeya Lidanya†

Urdnot Wrex†

Han'Gerrel vas Neema†

Schells Linron†

Adrien Victus†

Din Korlack†

** Casualties **(estimates)

Allied Individuals:

240,000,000,000

Council Individuals:

1,220,000,000,000

Total individuals:

1,220,240,000,000

Allied Planets:

960

Council Planets:

5040

Total planets:

6000

Allied Systems:

240

Council Systems:

1260

Total systems:

1500


End file.
